This walk is being led by Mike Day and Keith Donnelly. It is Walk 8 in the Exploring London programme of walks.

We plan to meet at Vauxhall station about 10.10am, which allows those coming by train to catch the first off-peak train from Staines, Ashford etc, and the use of rail cards or group travel

This walk is now fully booked

GETTING THERE AND BACK

START: Vauxhall station.   FINISH:  Waterloo station 

ROUTE: The walk starts from Vauxhall and meanders through the back streets of Westminster, through St. James’s Park, along the Embankment around the site of Whitehall Palace,  finishing at the Houses of Parliament, aka The Palace of Westminster.  From there it is just a short stroll over Westminster Bridge back to Waterloo Station.   

INFORMATION

This is a route that passes many Government Offices and Departments situated in the Westminster area. A toilet and refreshment stop is planned at the Footstool Cafe, in the Smith Square Concert Hall but there will be an opportunity for lunch at the end of the walk, at a Slug and Lettuce pub, near Waterloo station!

 Researching Government departments is very time consuming and not always straightforward and therefore if you can add any information, please feel free to chip in!  The Palace of Westminster was located on an island known as Thorney Island almost exactly where it stands today, but north of the present Westminster Abbey stood Whitehall Palace.   This was the royal residence in London from 1530 until 1698 and covered an area of 23 acres bounded by the present Northumberland Avenue, the 

Embankment, Downing Street and Horse Guards Parade.  It was bigger than Versailles or the Vatican with 1500 rooms. All that now remains after its destruction by fire in 1698 is the Banqueting House in Whitehall, and Henry VIIIs Wine Cellar located beneath the Ministry of Defence.   You may notice that the buildings that make up the complex of the Ministry of Defence are curved.  Allegedly the three buildings form arcs of a circle whose centre point is the Speakers Chair in the House of Commons!  

Henry VIII took the house away from Cardinal Wolsey and made it his own London residence.  He had a bowling green, an indoor tennis court, a cock fighting pit and a tiltyard for jousting constructed within the palace.  Hence the open space of Horse Guards Parade which was used for jousting, and the name of Cockpit steps.   Henry married both Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour in the palace.  The name of Whitehall of course lingered on when Scotland Yard was first built on the site and had the famous telephone number Whitehall 1212.